when you reach me, by rebecca stead

Miranda lives in New York City in 1978. She has a best friend who's pulling away from her, a sometimes job in a dubious sandwich shop, an extreme devotion to A Wrinkle in Time, and a mystery to solve.

When You Reach Me was the first book I read when vacation started last summer. I'd been hoarding it all spring like a nuggety little reward for surviving the year, and I stayed up late to finish it one night during the first week of break. When I was growing up, I also had an extreme devotion to A Wrinkle in Time (still do); this book is a pleasurable little love letter to that classic and a beautiful and complex piece of young adult science fiction in its own right. Miranda is genuine and likeable - full of faults and lessons and yearnings; each of the other characters is just as fully human and real, and their failings and strengths unspool into the fabric of a perfect plot. Enchanting and satisfying. Go read it. Now.